OROVILLE &GT;&GT; An expert testified Wednesday that DNA recovered in a sexual assault and rape case is connected to the three defendants on trial.

Senior criminalist Rebecca Gaxiola, of the state Department of Justice's crime lab in Redding, testified about testing DNA from clothing and swabs in the alleged Oct. 27, 2012, incident at an apartment on the 600 block of West Fourth Avenue in Chico.

Under questioning by supervising deputy district attorney Kelly Maloy, Gaxiola said some samples indicated it was highly probable the DNA came from defendants Alex Delashan McNack, 22, and Marshall Nixon, 18. In another test that contained a mixture of DNA from the alleged victim and two people, Gaxiola said defendant Benny McCoy Williams, 20, couldn't be excluded as a contributor.

The defendants, all from Stockton, are on trial for seven felony counts each, including acting in concert with another to forcibly conduct oral copulation, sodomy and forcible rape with a foreign object; two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object; sexual battery by restraint; and forcible rape.

During last week's opening statements, Williams' attorney Kevin Sears said there would be no dispute of the DNA evidence because sexual acts took place. He had said there were differences in the accounts of what happened.

The woman has testified she had come from Oroville to Chico for pre-Halloween festivities but lost her friends. While at West Fifth and Ivy streets, she saw a friend who agreed to let her stay at his apartment.

At the apartment, the friend left her in his bedroom with McNack. McNack left the room before returning. Moments later, two other men entered and the alleged acts took place.

Earlier Wednesday, the man who provided a ride to the woman after the alleged incident testified.

Gary Russell Wright Jr. testified he was speaking with a passerby from his porch at about 4 a.m., when he saw the woman come from the neighboring apartment building. He said there didn't appear to be anyone pursuing her, although people were walking around.

The woman had testified two men in black hooded sweatshirts followed her.

She first asked if they were on Fourth Street. Wright said they were in the avenues and provided directions before deciding to give her a ride.

"She just looked lost and disoriented and not knowing where she was at," Wright said.

The woman first wanted to go to a bar at West Fifth and Ivy streets, but it was closed. She then wanted to go to Columbus Avenue and Wright dropped her off behind the shopping center there.

That account differs from what the woman testified to. She said Wright had taken her first to Columbus Avenue and then to West Fifth and Ivy streets. She said she didn't recall telling police that Wright took her first to West Fifth and Ivy.